This is the spring equinox sunset as seen from our back porch through the crotch of our 125+ year old silver maple— our personal Stonehenge. We actually have been marking the apparent sunsets (actually earth turns) for the past year from this vantage point, documenting where, on the buildings across the alley, the sun sets. The sun is now apparently traveling north where on the solstice in June it will work its way south, past the crotch of the tree, until the winter solstice when the sun will seem to move north again.

Above the garbage cans, discarded junk, and random (and intentional) detritus that litters our alley, at the edge of the rooflines of five urban buildings seen from behind, it is reassuring to observe these persistent and dramatic natural forces continually cycling and annually reminding me that there is always more than just the hope of renewal.